BETHLEHEM, Pennsylvania-Less than two weeks ago, The Crimson ran a football preview which stated:

"In 1997 [Harvard's] offense will usher out the Eion Hu '97 era, riding instead on the young arm of sophomore quarterback Rich Linden..."

The general consensus among football prognosticators seemed to be that if this team were to win, it would be behind the capable might of Harvard's defensive unit, which returned all 11 starters from a year ago.

The offensive firepower for the '97 campaign was to be provided by the solid arm of Linden and swift feet of all-purpose wideout senior Col-by Skelton.

As for the running game, Harvard Coach Tim Murphy called the advent of the post-Hu era "a challenge," and hoped only to "replace him by committee."

Two weeks into the season, some of the predictions have panned out. Forgetting for a minute Harvard's fourth-quarter collapse in Saturday's victory at Lehigh, the defense gave up only 13 points and 434 yards in seven quarters, and indeed was ranked among the Top 20 in NCAA I-AA in four defensive categories after the first week.

Rich Linden has six touchdown passes in two weeks, sports a 54-percent completion rate and carried a ridiculous 141.35 quarterback rating into Saturday's contest.

But this clearly is not the whole story. Skelton does not have a single catch this season, and Harvard's supposedly medicore offense has had to overcome a worrisome propensity by the defense to give up the big play. Fully four of the six touchdown plays yielded by the Harvard defense this year have been 24 yards or longer.

Instead of defense or a big play offense, the real weapon exhibited by the '97 Crimson thus far has been a brutal steamroller of a running game.

Harvard has racked up 282 yards-per-game on the ground, accounting for 60-percent of the Crimson's total offensive output.

This production is coming three-and-a-half months after Hu and his 3,000 career yards were lost to graduation.

If you watch the offense for a quarter or so, the apparent depth and talent at running back is so amazing that you begin to wonder if this isn't really a huge state school tailback farm ala Joe Paterno and State College, PA.

It does not even seem to matter who takes the ball for the Crimson; he suddenly looks like Barry Sanders.

Harvard junior back Troy Jones had a performance good enough to repeat as Athlete of the Week-he ran for 97 yards on 20 carries Saturday-but he would most likely be eclipsed by another in his own backfield.

Sophomore Chris Menick had 121 yards on 15 carries including a rushing touchdown, and an 18-yard touchdown reception Saturday.